Shutdown would not endanger cloud environments

By Frank Konkel

Sep 26, 2013

A government shutdown won't weaken the security of the data inside the government's various cloud environments, be they private, public or a combination of the two, according to those responsible for cybersecurity and federal IT.

"It'll be business as usual," said Barry West, CIO of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. West spoke Sept. 26 at a conference on big data held in Washington, D.C.

Federal agencies have been given guidelines to decide whom to furlough and what programs to delay if a shutdown occurs, and it appears feds have decided that cybersecurity experts and the IT personnel who defend the country's cloud computing infrastructures and data stores will not be furloughed. IT gurus and network wizards are also unlikely to be told to stay home.

Related Story

Private clouds – those located on-premises – play vital roles in some federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Agriculture and the intelligence community. If a significant number of federal employees in cybersecurity roles were off the job, attackers might have windows of opportunity to wreak havoc in the event of a shutdown.

By law, agencies cannot furlough employees who provide for national security, provide benefit payments and performance of obligations or conduct activities that protect life and property.

Agencies that make use of vendor-hosted public clouds should expect no security or reliability issues either, according to Naeem Musa, chief information security officer for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Musa said third-party vendors provide security, services and support to their data centers, so a government shutdown would not affect any processes.